Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

Arachnophobes should stay out the house at 7.35pm because that is the time spiders are most likely to be scuttling around, a new study suggests.

Householders are likely to see more creepy crawlies in the coming weeks as Britain hits peak spider mating season, which runs until the first week of October.

And because females tend to spin their webs on door and window frames, males come inside to track down a prospective partner.

Prof Adam Hart, an entomologist at the University of Gloucestershire, collected more than 10,000 records from more than 250 locations in Britain to find out when spiders are most likely to be seen.

He discovered that peak sightings happen at 7.35pm in the evening. There was also a slight peak in sightings at 6–8 am which could refect morning observations of spiders trapped in sinks or baths overnight, said the researchers.

"We think that while people are more likely to be sat down and able to view spider at 7.30pm the pattern of sightings in rooms other than living rooms suggests that it is not just people driving the pattern - so we think it probably does reflect some spider ecology too," said Prof Hart.

"The main message is like to convey is that spider season is really just a few weeks, that UK spiders are basically totally harmless and that spiders are incredibly important predators - natural pest controllers and their predation encourages higher biodiversity.